Obama and the Vampire Congress – by Michelle Malkin

Meet the Beltway bloodsuckers. They convene in the dead of night, when most ordinary mortals have left work and let their guard down or are lying asleep in bed. Pale-faced and insatiable, the nocturnal thieves do their nefarious business in backrooms and secret chambers. Their primary victims? Taxpayers, the free market and deliberative democracy.

Democratic leaders have been promising the most ethical, transparent, open and engaged administration for years. Instead, they have delivered a bleak and creepy legislative environment that could double as a “Twilight” movie set.

Skulking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rammed the government health care takeover package through under the cover of darkness before Thanksgiving and Christmas. House Democratic leaders forbade debate on all but one amendment not authored by themselves. The Senate Finance Committee killed a GOP amendment that would have required Demcare to be available online for 72 hours before the committee voted. Reid and his Volterra-style henchmen cut last-minute cash-for-cloture deals behind closed doors.

And now House and Senate Democratic leaders are reportedly preparing to cut dissenters out of the reconciliation process by bypassing the formal conference committee.

In Hill parlance, this legislative shortcut is called “ping-ponging.” A better game analogy: dodgeball. With mounting opposition from both conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, President Obama’s water-carriers must use every trick in the book to speed the final merging and passage of the bill before the end of the month.

The hypocrisy reeks stronger than rotting garlic. In 2006, House Democrats asserted that “House-Senate conferences are a critical part of the deliberative process because they produce the final legislative product that will become the law of the land.” That same year, Reid railed on the Senate floor against informal deal-making that circumvented the conference committee process — and he attacked the use of manager’s amendments to avoid public scrutiny:

“Of course, nobody can see the manager’s amendment. It is composed of over 40 amendments. How could anyone vote for a piece of legislation such as that — a manager’s amendment with 42 separate amendments? Now, these amendments were not put in a conference committee.

People complain about that. But at least in a conference committee, you have people working together, sticking things in. … Here, you have one person making a decision as to what is going to be in the manager’s amendment. There is no way to know what is in it.”

But four years later, it was Reid who snuck his 383-page manager’s amendment — stuffed with payoffs, special breaks and concessions on health care — into the Senate hopper on the Saturday before Christmas break. Four years later, it is Reid stifling the open, collaborative conference committee process he so fiercely championed.

Where’s Barack Obama? As a candidate, he promised repeatedly to broadcast legislative negotiations on C-SPAN “so that the American people can see what the choices are” and “so that the public will be part of the conversation and will see the choices that are being made.” But the most transparent presidential administration ever is shrugging its shoulders. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs pooh-poohed C-SPAN’s request to allow electronic media coverage of the Demcare negotiations.

Instead, Gibbs thinks Americans should be grateful for what they got last month: “The Senate did a lot of their voting at 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning on C-SPAN. … And I think if you watched that debate — I don’t know — I wasn’t up at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning for a lot of those votes, but I think if the American public had watched … you’d have seen quite a bit of public hearing and public airing.” And if you missed the middle-of-the-night broadcasts, tough noogies.

Team Obama’s contempt for meaningful transparency has been on display from Day One. A year ago this month, Obama broke his vaunted open government pledge with the very first bill he signed into law. On Jan. 29, 2009, the White House boasted that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had been posted online for review. Except: Obama had already signed it — in violation of his “sunlight before signing” pledge to post legislation for public comment on the White House website five days before he sealed any deal.

From the stimulus to the health care takeover to holiday bailouts for bankrupt financial behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it’s been all backrooms and blackouts ever since. The Prince of Darkness at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is perfectly happy with his Vampire Congress. Wraiths of a sunshine-evading feather flock together.

Let's not let them ever see the light of day again in congress. remember their names, never allow them a public office seat again.

abrahamstubenhaus

Mr. Obama would have made a heap of money if he had started an honest group of musicians working together as they are, “Barack and his Vampires.”WHo knows how much sucking he did when he was alone with King Abdullah without cameras, after he bowed so low, even am under-the-sink repairman would have been arrested for the display. Alas though, Mr. Obama was wearing a suit jacket.Anyway, dear Michelle, your comments are always very deep and you manage somehow to continuously get to core of the topic. Thank you!

CowboyUp

When a bunch of her coven were asked about their openness and transparency campaign promises in a joint press conference, pelosi laughed and said something about people say all sorts of things in campaigns. She might as well added, “Sucker,” or “Psych!” The msm is looking dumber and dumber every day.

Pelosi's little revelation should be in adds in every district up for election this year, but it probably won't.

USMCSniper

The freedoms Congress and the Senate swore to protect are already on life support – and we are the victims of their gerrymandered seats and fundraising bribery. Our military's blood is being spilled on the battlefield, while Obama courted his global warming socialist entourage to Europe and accepted his bullshit Nobel Peace Prize.

Exactly how and where the Constitution gives this bunch of bloodsucking leeches the right to regulate doctor visits and control patient treatment is deliberately avoided and somehow never addressed. I wonder why? A million-plus peaceful protesters in the leeches' front yard demanding they get their nose out of the hospital tent are dismissed. And the bloodsucking party by the leeches goes on. Does anyone imagine this can all end well?

Joyce Holmes

I don’t recognize this government. It is foreign. It is nothing like what I learned about all through my years in school. The pride I used to feel when I thought about our selfless founding fathers and what they did for the future of the country they were starting turns to anger when I realize how our government has over the years overstepped its boundaries into “We the Peoples” freedoms and rights and twisted the meaning of the words in our Constitution into something that gave them the right to stuff crap down our throats in the wee hours. These people really do without a doubt feel that they are our superiors, our betters. They feel they have a right over us the way well-intentioned parents have rights over their minor offspring. I am an adult. I am educated. I read. I travel. I ask questions. I don’t need or want these vultures meddling in my life and making decisions for me that I did not have a say in or that I did not agree to. This is not about what’s best for the majority. This is about how is the most expeditious way to force America to make a hard left turn at high speed while driving drunk. Then the paramedics, our government, can come in and clean up the mess that they caused, but will blame us or “the others” for the consequences. They’ve been working at this for a long time. Little by little they have pass laws and installed programs while they tell us x millions of dollars will solve this or that. Have they solved anything? We have people living on welfare in this country who have given birth to children who know only welfare who give birth to more children who only know welfare. We are drowning in their programs under their do-gooder banner which have only served to guarantee that the people on their programs will vote for them out of fear of losing their welfare. They have been playing the bribery game for so long that now that they openly do it they are truly amazed that we don’t find this acceptable. I think some of the Dems that are leaving now are doing so because they realize they have gone too far. I can only pray that they feel shame.

thinker1

Interesting comments from other site:" It is birth records and college records we need to see.I know Hawaii pretty well. There are only 3 hospitals (I use to work at Queens). There is no record of his birth at any of the 3.To get into Punahou, one must start with pre-school. How did he even get into the damn school?Who paid for his schooling at Columbia?Did he lie on his applications?Did he claim to be Muslim?Did he benefit from Affirmative Action, though his father was not even American, and his mother was white?I want to see all of it, but you see. The Trilaterialists are not about to release any of it.

bushlikesdick12

Republicans attempt to sabatoge Obama's health bill through fillibuster attempts and thier rash FOX campaign smear tactics and now Malkin has the audacity to accuse the Democrates of doing businees in backrooms in the middle of night…

Well Frankenstien, that is pretty much what our Patriots had to do to defeat the Red Coats as well.

bushlikesdick12

Let me put your birth shit to rest (know one cares how many bed pans you rinced at Queens any more).

Obama never was born in the U.S., he is a closet Muslim, all his schooling was paid for by Bin Laden's illigitimate stepFather''s concubine, and his tanned Mother was brought over in a ship meant to go to Haiti instead of Florida.

But yet know one still cares because you still have a brian 1/10th the size of Obama's c*ck!

waynetallaksen

Sorry to say but you are right! I am here in AsssAchusetts and there might be an upset that will say Volumes of an awakening!! There will be an election on the 1/19/10.We have Dem Coakley a Rep Brown and (love this) an Indipendent TA DA!! Joseph Kennedy! Can you believe some Ahole would try and find a political appointment by name sake? Even though there is no relation there have been people to get elected by name sake in this leftist Paradise!If Scott Brown wins By BY to the Dems 60! No health care No crap-in-tax No card check!! Wayne tallaksen

victorleon010

Sometimes I think that not even the people in the senate or the congress knows what they are doing.

Oh my God, no one wants a piece of this one? You have to be kidding me dick. You are equating this current congress and what they are doing to what our founding father did? Wouldnt you say its more like what the Bolsheviks did to Russia?

thinker1

Idiots surprised again!!! They expected HIRING NEWS in December (lots of temporary help before Christmas) – but firing exceeded hiring by 85,000!

So, the real firing was well over HALF A MILLION, wasn't it? And unemployment, they say, is “steady”. Bunch of clowns!!!!

ronaldmalvoy

Thanks so much for nice article you wrote here. That really interesting for me as a reader.Ipgen

KevinStowell

But yet know one still cares because you still have a brian 1/10th the size of Obama's c*ck! Why would you know that? I'm sure you meant brain, not Brian. Has you altar come crashing down yet?

KevinStowell

The patriots weren't pushing a communist takeover, via the healthcare system, that is doomed to put the finishing touches on the destruction of the economy.

ghjhjhgjhjkg

Kevin: liberals are educated beyond their intelligence…most are a vomit on two legs.Did I say BushDoesntLikeHim? …………..er….they don't say “doesn't” , and they “ax” questions.As seen somewhere else: “I would gladly donate a heart, just need a knife and a liberal standing by ;)”Yo . liberals!!! You do not have to laugh – it was a joke for intelligent people.

ghjhjhgjhjkg

Dav: ever seen a fact bothering a liar? Don't lose your time talking to a wall. A stupid wall, to be exact.

ghjhjhgjhjkg

All MSM rags get their orders from WH – it is the Grrrrrrrrrrreat one dictating the news – see the one below on unemployment – we are losing 500,000-700,000 job a month, and unemployment “is steady”.ANOTHER LIE: people keep on looking for job! But to lower stats, those 1 year without job – “stopped looking”; REALLY??? They lied down to die, together with their spouses and children????? You bunch of liars.And bunch of idiots believe it, like the one above, axing dorky questions and vomiting his welfare check, converted to watery pissbeer, out on us.

ghjhjhgjhjkg

EEck12 Big Zero – yo, imbecile with 100s dads – no arguments? Then shut up! Calling your interlocutor names does NOT make your God Bama better nor you smarter! Stop losing taxpayer money – quit that community junior college and start working. Although you may pass because your skin ain't white, you will not be able to read what they hand to you at the end of it.

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